O'Neill Chirps, Scores Goal of the Year as Denver Wins Marathon Against Boston

Saturday’s matchup between the Boston Cannons and Denver Outlaws was littered with monster hits, two-point rips and flashy finishes in the Premier Lacrosse League’s highest-scoring game this season.

Eight players scored at least four points between both sides, and Denver attackman Brennan O’Neill notched arguably the PLL’s goal of the season when he went through his legs to beat Boston goalie Colin Kirst.

O’Neill finished with four goals on seven shots and broke his usual stoic persona after scoring, delivering messages to the Cannons defense after almost every goal.

“I’m not the most vocal player; I usually just put my head down and play,” O’Neill said. “It’s healthy competition at the end of the day. Plays are made, these guys are big, physical players. There’s going to be hits sometimes that you don’t like, and I saw a couple and sometimes emotions get you going.”

Boston kept pace with Denver, which is the fastest team in the league in terms of offensive tempo. Denver held a slight edge throughout and eked out an 18-17 win, but it didn’t come without some drama.

The fastest player on the field, Outlaws midfielder Jared Bernhardt, scored four goals on five shots, but his foot was clearly on the crease’s line during his goal with 8:25 left. Cannons’ head coach Brian Holman could not challenge the shot because he had already challenged two other crease dives from Bernhardt, winning one of them.

“I don’t think your goal should count if it’s illegal,” Holman said. “Whether you have timeouts or flags or not, I think somebody over there should say ‘Well, that’s not a legal goal.’ That’s not why we lost, but it certainly had something to do with it.”

The goal stood and the score leveled at 15 before another goal from Bernhardt earned Denver the lead with one minute remaining. The Outlaws won the ensuing faceoff and burned 32 seconds off the clock before attackman Pat Kavanagh ran offsides with 16 seconds left.

With a man advantage, attackman Asher Nolting started play at the top of the field and attempted a skip pass, but veteran defender Jesse Bernhardt immediately smacked the ball down, icing the game. There was an off-ball pick to Nolting’s right that got midfielder Matt Campbell’s hands free, but Marcus Holman said that was meant to pull defender Mike Manley away from the crease.

“[Asher] and I talked about maybe just banging it down the side quick and getting it back to him, because if you stare down a skip lane like that you have Jesse Bernhardt in the middle of the field,” Marcus Holman said. “Credit to them for getting a stop. If I would be given that chance again, I would take it 10 out of 10. So we’re gonna be bummed about that one for sure.”

Holman’s two-point goal with 4:07 left in the game was the 355th of his career and tied him with Paul Rabil on professional field lacrosse’s all-time goal list.

I had the opportunity to play with Paul [on] Team USA in 2014 and ‘18 and to just be in the locker room with him,” he said. “Like I said before, Paul set the standard for professional lacrosse for a while.”

Both Holman and midfielder Connor Kirst notched two-pointers while finishing with four points. On the other side of the field, Kavanagh and midfielder Dalton Young led with five points. Saturday was the second time Young has scored five points in his career.

Maryland keeps playoff hopes alive

It was Michael Sowers’ show for the first 14 minutes during Saturday’s clash between the Philadelphia Waterdogs and Maryland Whipsnakes.

Until the 5:59 mark of the second quarter, Sowers was the only player to find the back of the net. After his goal with 10:40 left in the second quarter, he had seven shots to Maryland’s 10. He was dominating his matchup against Ajax Zappitello, scoring his first three goals left-handed and in nearly identical fashion.

After his fourth goal, though, he hardly touched the ball again, and the Whipsnakes mounted a 9-1 run to gain a 10-6 lead with 2:52 remaining. Waterdogs’ midfielder Zach Currier snapped their over 21-minute-long scoring drought with 2:10 left, but it was already too late — and the Whipsnakes prevailed 10-7.

No Philadelphia player scored more than two goals other than Currier and Sowers. The No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, CJ Kirst, made his debut for the Waterdogs but couldn’t find the back of the net on five shots.

“Whenever you put anybody new in the lineup, it’s going to change things,” Waterdogs’ head coach Bill Tierney said about Kirst. “He’s used to being the guy a team relies on. Right now, Michael is the guy that we rely on. Instead of having another middie who just runs and kind of moves the ball, we’ve got another great middie who can beat people and then put the ball on the goal.”

After scoring just two points over the Whipsnakes’ last two games, their primary facilitator, TJ Malone, looked like his usual, surgical self. He finished with five points on four assists, three of which came consecutively in the fourth quarter and were all to Matt Brandau. Bookending Sowers’ first-quarter performance, Brandau scored four goals during the fourth quarter to ice the win for the Whipsnakes.

“If you flash and TJ Malone sees your stick open for a second, he’s going to place the ball right in your pocket, and you’re just going to have to take care of the easy part from there,” Brandau said.

Malone’s first assist was arguably the most important one. He delivered a skip pass to Brad Smith, who torched the upper-left corner for a two-point goal at the 7:45 mark of the third quarter. That brought the Waterdogs’ lead to 6-4 and sparked an 8-0 run.

Maryland’s power-play offense was a perfect 3-for-3.

According to the PLL, the Whipsnakes’ chances of making the playoffs grew from 46.59 percent to 64.73 percent after their win, as they bumped Boston down to the bottom of the Eastern Conference. At this rate, the Eastern Conference is set to have a dramatic finish for the last spot in the playoffs, as the final game of the season is between the Cannons and the Whipsnakes.

Whichever team wins that game will likely earn the final spot.